Is paper standard dead?
Standard forum
Posted on Oct. 21, 2022, 1:35 p.m. by MoGoose831
I've been out of the loop on standard for a few years now and after a couple buddies and I decided to get back into standard it looks like it only exists on mtga.
Is there anywhere paper standard is played and healthy?
I second the above comment.... local game stores that do FNM Draft and the like are almost certain to also have a standard constructed night at some point weekly/bi-weekly
October 21, 2022 2:09 p.m.
MoGoose831 says... #4
TheOfficialCreator unfortunately all the LGSes in my area only do draft and Commander nights.
We are thinking about each building a couple decks and bringing them to share if people want to join but I'd be more interested in joining a pre-established community.
October 21, 2022 4:38 p.m.
There are still some places that do paper Standard - I know at least one of my local stores does - but it does appear to be a dwindling market. Most of my local stores have moved to Limited for their FNM tournaments and, even the store that has Standard, has relegated that to a different day of the week.
There are a number of reasons for Standard’s decline in popularity, though Arena providing easy access to Standard decks without having to constantly spend money with each set release (let alone rotation) is likely the biggest factor in its decline. Other factors include the rise of Pioneer (providing a less expensive alternative to Modern without the instability of Standard), the popularity of Commander nights, and the simple fact that it makes more financial sense for an LGS to sell draft packs for FNM than entry fees to a dwindling (at least in paper) format.
October 21, 2022 4:47 p.m.
RNR_Gaming says... #6
Eh my store is draft/pioneer/commander - most other stores I've visited are the same. Standard died at my shop during the Ixalan block hasn't made a comeback since. Outside of arena I'm sure if you live close to a convention center of some sort you could probably play in an open or 5k if one pops up.
October 21, 2022 11:47 p.m.
Honestly, I'm still concerned that the utter failure of Brawl to instantly displace Commander as The Most Popular Format Ever(c) helped lead to the downfall of Standard. The people who make strategic decisions such as that at Wizards keep trying to strike lightning in a bottle, to mix metaphors, and aren't willing to take the time to support, nurture and grow their existing works in favor of "new and new and newer and why aren't we retaining players? More flash! More style! Who cares about balance or tournaments?"
That the only existing decks for Brawl came with Arcane Signet and are from Throne of Eldraine, a not well balanced set (I'm looking at you, Oko the Broko) and we see part of the poisoned notions surrounding Standard.
October 22, 2022 3:54 p.m.
I do not think Brawl’s failure has anything to do with Standard’s decline berryjon. Brawl was doomed from its first day - it took a popular format that is based around multiplayer (and thus requires a critical mass of players) and added the relatively unpopular rotation system. That combination was always going to be fatal to Brawl. There just are not enough people who want “Commander + Rotation” - people who want Commander play Commander and the players who like Standard are just going to stick to Standard (then play Commander when they want a Commander feel). It was a format without a market, and it did not take long for Wizards to realise they should focus instead on Commander, the format folks actually wanted to play.
Compare to Standard, which still gets a tremendous amount of support in terms of new sets designed specifically for the desired Standard power level. There clearly are folks who like playing Standard - the problem for in-person play is that those folks have moved to Arena where it is cheaper to build decks, you can play whenever you want, and you can always find folks to play against at the push of a button. Plus while you are left with a bunch of digital content you cannot use, it still is not like with Paper Standard where you often will end up with large piles of cards sitting around that you’ll never be able to use again, but still take up space.
From an LGS perspective, competing with Arena is a hard place to be in, unless you have a dedicated Standard community already in place. Why fight with Wizards for Arena players, when Are a better lends itself to the unique metagame and considerations of Standard, when you can focus on formats Arena does not do as well (or at all), like Pioneer, Limited, Modern, or EDH.
There are just so many significant reasons that paper Standard is on the decline that saying a format which was (and always was going to be) dead on arrival played a part in its decline seems to be focusing on a non-issue.
TheOfficialCreator says... #2
Friday Night Magic should still run it at your LGS, but paper standard isn't really played much outside of LGSes from what I understand.
October 21, 2022 1:52 p.m.